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Posts Tagged ‘xarcadia’

Kapo (pictured above) is just one of many examples of your average Xarcadian.

Xarcadia is an expansive world populated by a massively diverse population of creatures. It is divided into disparate “zones”, each one with its own thematic: an ice zone, a city zone, an underground zone, etc. This world is a place imbued with magic and mythology, where living gods walk the earth and hang out with people on a one-to-one basis. Magic is an everyday utility, and is used primarily for the welfare of Xarcadia’s populace. This allows for a highly varied technology system that may seem a little arbitrary to an outsider – a rocket-powered horse carriage might be carrying a cargo of very valuable datachips to a distant icy mountain, which is home to hacker yetis.

The world of Xarcadia extends well beyond a singular planet – it is a multitude of locations and settings that come together through a not-well-understood system of portals. These portals form the backbone of Xarcadian economy, culture, and society. Without these portals, Xarcadia would be highly reliant on very expensive and inefficient space travel for most daily needs. The expenses of sending a space freighter loaded with goods pales in comparison to simply sending wagons through the closest portal.

Xarcadians enjoy a great deal of personal freedom and agency. There is very little in the way of governance or inequality; most people live in close-knit personal communities and do as they please. There is no central Xarcadian government, but some areas may be loosely ruled by a confederacy of communities or be subject to the influence of a powerful merchant conglomerate. These pseudo-governments have very little actual power over the day to day lives of the populate, and when they outgrow their purpose or become corrupt, they are quickly dismantled by popular organization.

Likewise, Xarcadians are a diverse lot. Most people are elfs, with anthropomorphic animals, monsters, and robots making up the rest of the population. There is no serious form of bigotry against any specific group of people on Xarcadia. As all people are so wildly different from each other, it is pointless to single out specific groups of people to discriminate against. Xarcadians live in harmony with one another with no outside pressures forcing them to work against one another.

Each zone of Xarcadia has its own geographic features and is unique compared to its surroundings. Though there is overlap in the transitional areas where two zones meet, the zones each have a singular geographical identity: there is only one zone of icy mountains, one cluster of volcanoes, one stretch of grassy flatlands, and so on.

Much of Xarcadia is pastoral and undeveloped. The most populated city is Cosmopolis, a city so large as to cover a substantial amount of the world’s surface. People on Xarcadia typically either live within a district of Cosmopolis, or in a rural zone far away. Viridian Valley, a large grassy flatland with rolling hills, is the center of Xarcadia. Though it is not the largest and does not have the biggest populations – both of those honors go to Cosmopolis, the only zone large enough to have what could be described as sub-zones – Viridian Valley is viewed as a cornerstone part of the Xarcadian world, and the icon of what it means to live in Xarcadia.

The most powerful artifacts on all of Xarcadia are known as Keys. These are items with a singular purpose: they are the only items that can close – and more importantly, open – new portals to other worlds. With the reliance Xarcadia has on the portal network to function, any portal to a previously undiscovered location could mean a massive upheaval of society as the world knows it. Keys are frequently powerful magical items in their own right, granting their users incredible magical powers beyond what can be done with simple enchantments. The most legendary key of all is the Skeleton Key, which can unlock anything – including unlocking the secrets to magic itself.